The present invention relates to seats in general and, more in particular, to a seat especially adapted for motorcycle use.
Motorcycle seats at one time provided lateral support by wings of the seat extending upwardly and outwardly from the bottom of the seat. This lateral support held a rider and reduced riding fatigue. However, no attempt was made to tailor the seat to the requirements of different riders.
Modern motorcycles come equipped with long wedge seats that resemble a beam and provide no lateral buttocks support. The reason for this is that the seat must be used by both short and tall riders, as well as all sizes in-between.
A rider moves along the long wedge seat to find a spot suitable for the rider's size. This solution to the variable height rider comes at the expense of uniform load distribution on the rider by the seat and low unit loads on the rider by the seat. For example, a rider's leg must drop to reach the ground, brake, or change gears and this increases loading on the rider where the anatomy is not designed to carry weight. The lack of lateral buttocks support means the entire load of a rider must be carried in a small area. This lack of lateral support also is felt on centrifugal loads.
Springs have been used in seating for a long time to provide stiffness, resistance, and load shock attenuation. In use, with the passage of time, springs can take a set. This results in the seat having different support qualities than it originally had. One possibility of excessive set is that the seat bottoms prematurely, resulting in the loss of the support that the springs originally gave the seat.
Modern seating uses foam as a cushion material. In time the foam degrades and compresses, losing thickness. This changes seat shape and results in a different seat contour than desired.
Furthermore, different motorcycle riders and different motorcycling conditions require different seats. Regrettably, there has been no way in the past to accommodate different rider anatomies, riding conditions, and rider preference.